Irish American VP Joe Biden looks ‘tough and radiant’ in new White House portrait say critics

The White House's second term portrait of Vice President Joe Biden is eliciting praise from tough critics.

Taken on January 10 by his official photographer David Lienemann, according to Jezebel, Biden looks 'tough and radiant' in his pinstripe suit and a blue candy cane tie.

The popular website also claimed the Vice President looked at least ten years younger than in his last official portrait.

Biden is reportedly pictured with folded arms, in a strong pose that shows off his confident smile, which could be seen - Jezebel suggested - as a defiant gesture to Speaker of the House and regular critic, John Boehner.

The new photograph replaces the previous portrait of 2009, when the vice president posed in front of the two flags and a white back drop. The new photograph follows the release of a new official portrait of president Barack Obama and the first lady, Michelle.

Biden, who is dubbed Diamond Joe in Washington and is famous for being one of the party's most effective draws for swing voters, has shown few signs of aging since his 2009 portrait.

Biden, who hails from the heavily Irish American neighborhood of Scranton, Pennsylvania, became one of the youngest people ever to be elected to the United States Senate when he was just 29.

He was sworn in at his two sons' hospital bedsides after a car crash that killed his wife Neilia and one-year-old daughter Naomi just weeks after his election.

Biden twice attempted to run for the presidency himself but had to drop out on both occasions. In 1988 he was found to have life-threatening brain aneurysms.